Wisdom’s Single Source

When Christ Jesus defined evil, the devil, as a lie and liar, he made it clear that escape from evil, from every type of disharmony, is an escape from the rule of falsity, the subjection to some phase of belief in that which is not true. Salvation is thus seen to involve the acquisition of a right understanding, and faithful adherence to its counsel.

This gives new significance to the oft-reiterated counsel of the Old Testament prophets and Preachers, that with all our getting we get wisdom. It gives new meaning to the peripatetic teaching of the Master, and his constant resort to the use of the parable, the schoolmaster of the east. It also throws light upon Paul’s identification of Christ as “the wisdom of God,” his prayer for the Colossians that they might be filled with all wisdom, and his frequent explanation that this saving knowledge is not that learning of culture which is “foolishness with God.”

This thought of the philosophy of salvation as an educational enterprise seems to simplify things, and may prove very helpful; nevertheless, in so far as men are forgetful of the kind of wisdom needed, it may become a distinct hindrance to the spiritual life. It is apparent that truly redemptive faith does not consort with ignorance, which invariably leads to torpid indifference or to gross superstition and fear; that there is no negative good, even, instupidity. On the other hand, it is equally apparent that historic rationalism, with all its learned refinements, has failed utterly to save men. The educational work of Christian missions has sometimes contributed to the religious advance, as well as the political betterment of the people, and it has sometimes resulted, sad to say, in the loss of the soul of evangelism, the power of the gospel.

With the individual, as with organized Christian bodies, the greatest problem is reflected in the ancient cry, “But where shall wisdom be found?” What is the specific knowing that will save from the tendencies and reactions of mortal sense? and the answer which was of old is worth our remembering: “God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof”—He is “our refuge and strength.” In the presence of human doubts and questionings, Christ Jesus constantly directed thought to the fact that it is God who accomplisheth all good in us, and Christian Science is again fixing the world’s attention upon this truth, that it is the right thought of God which makes possible the solution of every human problem. Said James, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God;” and it is entirely in keeping with this teaching that Mrs. Eddy has given such prominence to Deity, His nature, His causal and governing relation as divine Principle, His guiding and protecting nearness as omnipresent good, in selecting the subjects of our Lesson-Sermons. Of the twenty-six themes assigned for study, eight have to do directly with the divine nature, four with God’s relation to man, to being, while all the other find their logical elucidation in the recognition that God is All-in-all. No one can question, therefore, that the dominant thought of Christian Science teaching is this—To know God is eternal Life. Light for every problem is to be found in a closer touch with God, a clearer realization of Truth. Christian education might therefore be defined as the knowing of all that to which divine Principle is causally related, and the unknowing of everything else.

The application of this test to the things which would absorb our time and interest will prove a very illuminating and profitable exercise. In the hour of confusion and uncertainty, when we seem to stand at the parting of the roads and cannot determine what is the wise course, to remember just then that “God … knoweth the way,” that quite apart from the exercise of human judgment we may commit our goings to the All-wise, and find our path determined for us, and “so fortunately,” as it is seen after many days, perchance,—this is to find rest and quietness, a new sense of Paul’s saying that God, Truth, worketh in us to will and to do.